Monday, October 15, 2007

Signs the Olympics are coming

Well, all of the things I just mentioned, of course. And some other, more sinister omens:

1) We have our own little 'war on drugs'. This has so far involved arresting (and, probably, shaking down) anyone African showing their face in the bar district. (I hear that one of the guys they arrested in a recent crackdown was the son of one of the African ambassadors, so they may have to lighten up a little on this.) Apparently, the next step is to make it next-to-impossible for Africans to get visas. (I wonder if they'll make an exception for the athletes? Or is this part of The Great Masterplan to try to ensure that China snaffles all the medals??)

2) News management is ramped up; more journalists are arrested. (Check out this article on the Committee to Protect Journalists website about the recent detention of freelancer Lü Gengsong - which is being widely described as part of "a pre-Olympic crackdown". Just what we need! It really is high time that the IOC took its blinkers off and started throwing its weight around a little on issues like this.)

3) All social problems mysteriously disappear, as the government resiles from its half-hearted progressiveness and lapses back into its more traditional cult of denial. For example, I have just learned through a friend that virtually all AIDS awareness programmes are being cut this year. No programme, no problem.

The Very Best of Froogville

Pick of the Month: a random recommendation from the archive

The Barstool

Yang Rui must GO!

A leading presenter on China Central Television's English-language channel has revealed himself to be a xenophobic hate-monger. WHY does he still have a job? Lobby for his dismissal - by any and all means.

Days Ai Weiwei was detained

80

With ironic, sinister symmetry, the celebrity artist/activist was incarcerated on the same day that my friend Wu Yuren was finally released from 10 months' detention.

Now, like Wu, he's been released on extremely restrictive 'bail' terms - but could face re-arrest at any moment. He was detained incommunicado from April 3rd to June 22nd 2011.

Days Wu Yuren was in prison

307

"Released on parole" after 10 months; "parole" lifted another year later. The original charges against him were apparently dropped without his trial ever being formally concluded.

How you might have helped Wu Yuren (and the many others like him in China)

Remembering the Tiananmen protests of 1989

About Me

Froog is an escaped lawyer - but there is no need for alarm; he is only a danger to himself, not to the general public. An eternal wanderer, he now lives in an exotic city somewhere in the 'Third World' *, where he is held prisoner by an unfinished novel (or, more precisely, an unstarted novel). He spends a lot of time running, writing, taking photographs, and falling in love with women who fail to appreciate him. He also spends a lot of time in bars.
[* OK, I'll come clean: I've been living in Beijing since summer '02.]